Hair Bonds Dundee

Hair Bonds Project

They say that when a witch lets her hair loose, she unleashes tornadoes and hurricanes and causes comets to fly through the sky and volcanos to erupt. A woman’s hair is at the same time her ancient wisdom and her unique cellular portrait. For Hasidic and Islamic women, their hair is a symbol of sex. And according to Slavic beliefs, a woman’s hair is the storehouse of her memories, acting as her roots that connect her to women through time and the natural world.

Hair Bonds is a project in which the hair of different women and girls is braided together, the braids becoming nuclear highways of their individual histories.

According to recent studies the ever growing lack of direct connection in contemporary culture causes addiction. To heal addiction one needs to connect. Hair Bonds project weaves a kind of matriarchal biosphere, in which each strand of hair has its own biological memory - a unique molecule that carries most of the genetic instruction for functioning, development and reproduction of each participant.

Hair Bonds is a utopian metaphor of biological contact and takes form as a sequence of interactive performances. These performances are temporary events that combine group meditation with studio portrait photo sessions. In this way hair histories are spun together through physical binds and printed images that become historical evidences of these events.

Hair Bonds Valley View Center

Hair Bonds Project

They say that when a witch lets her hair loose, she unleashes tornadoes and hurricanes and causes comets to fly through the sky and volcanos to erupt. A woman’s hair is at the same time her ancient wisdom and her unique cellular portrait. For Hasidic and Islamic women, their hair is a symbol of sex. And according to Slavic beliefs, a woman’s hair is the storehouse of her memories, acting as her roots that connect her to women through time and the natural world.

Hair Bonds is a project in which the hair of different women and girls is braided together, the braids becoming nuclear highways of their individual histories.

According to recent studies the ever growing lack of direct connection in contemporary culture causes addiction. To heal addiction one needs to connect. Hair Bonds project weaves a kind of matriarchal biosphere, in which each strand of hair has its own biological memory - a unique molecule that carries most of the genetic instruction for functioning, development and reproduction of each participant.

Hair Bonds is a utopian metaphor of biological contact and takes form as a sequence of interactive performances. These performances are temporary events that combine group meditation with studio portrait photo sessions. In this way hair histories are spun together through physical binds and printed images that become historical evidences of these events.

Hair Bonds Studio

Hair Bonds Project

They say that when a witch lets her hair loose, she unleashes tornadoes and hurricanes and causes comets to fly through the sky and volcanos to erupt. A woman’s hair is at the same time her ancient wisdom and her unique cellular portrait. For Hasidic and Islamic women, their hair is a symbol of sex. And according to Slavic beliefs, a woman’s hair is the storehouse of her memories, acting as her roots that connect her to women through time and the natural world.

Hair Bonds is a project in which the hair of different women and girls is braided together, the braids becoming nuclear highways of their individual histories.

According to recent studies the ever growing lack of direct connection in contemporary culture causes addiction. To heal addiction one needs to connect. Hair Bonds project weaves a kind of matriarchal biosphere, in which each strand of hair has its own biological memory - a unique molecule that carries most of the genetic instruction for functioning, development and reproduction of each participant.

Hair Bonds is a utopian metaphor of biological contact and takes form as a sequence of interactive performances. These performances are temporary events that combine group meditation with studio portrait photo sessions. In this way hair histories are spun together through physical binds and printed images that become historical evidences of these events.

Ukrainian Hospitality

Ukrainian Hospitality observes the weaving of a cultural identity through fabrics, traditional embroidery and military camouflage in watercolor, furniture and installation, and was initiated by the 2014-15 war in Ukraine in response to Russian Military Intervention. The paintings are oversized rushnyks and kilimns, ‘embroidered’ in watercolor and ink on paper, inch by inch. These paintings incorporate Vedic and corporate symbology and inquire into the relationship between signs and power and energetic significance of symbols. Ukrainian Hospitality was exhibited at 500X, Dallas, Brookhaven College School of the Arts, Farmers Branch, Pierogi 2000 Artists Files, Brooklyn and Hannah Maclure Center, Dundee, UK.

Makeover Hata

The Make Over Hata is a project in progress dealing with cultural identity. It takes the form of an unfinished room in the process of restoration and comments on the art of personal re-decorating. In my past projects I was interested in architecture and the way constructed spaces contain memories and become a mirror of our internal emotional geometry. Based on this interest I propose to visualize the changing cultural and political identity of Ukraine, the country of my heritage, in the form of a room undergoing an absurd make over, filled with ‘embroidered’ furniture, building materials, structural supports, natural artifacts, electrical wiring and devices, herbal charts and icons. It is a room in which history and design, medicine and politics, inside and outside come together. I am in the process of crafting and appropriating furniture and wall and floor coverings. The furniture pieces are derived from my Ukrainian Hospitality paintings in watercolor and latex, based on traditional Ukrainian embroidery. These paintings assimilate ancient Vedic symbology as well as current corporate logos and inquire into the relationship between signs and power and energetic significance of symbols. I plan to print the paintings onto upholstery fabric and onto wallpaper. I will use airbrushed embroidery and hand paint camouflage patterns onto the furniture sculptures, also using ribbons borrowed from traditional Ukrainian head wreaths. The room will include aluminum relief icons, based on the documentation photographs from the Hair Bonds interactive performances

Vanishing

The works in this project examine ideas of thresholds, structures and illusion and combine drawing, airbrush, watercolor and cutouts.

Improbable Architecture

Improbable Architecture is an installation that translates the language, scale and illusion of painting into prototypes and models. By reversing a familiar architectural experience of being a user, inhabitant, or a by-passer of built spaces, Improbable Architecture puts the viewer in a place of a voyeur, surveyor, planner and potentially architect. In these micro installations, I combine suspended blueprint drawings, projections, lights and reflective materials that manipulate and disorient clear distinctions between walls, floor and ceiling. The resulting architecture appears not to be supported by solid structures and walls that delineate territories, but rather remind of a disorienting feeling of perceiving a landscape and its perfect reflection in a lake, or like penetrating a pool of water. The viewers are invited to cross the periphery of being a foreigner and dream-walk into the installation. This work was exhibited at San Francisco State University, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Headlands Center for the Arts.